Notes from the Henhouse

Reviews / Votes

Elspeth Barker could write about anything and have you longing for more . . . Notes from the Henhouse is a book for which one feels incredulous gratitude. How come, you think, she is not better known? The book deserves to be permanently on the bedside table - to cheer, reassure and inspire . . . [Barker's] essays are sympathetic little masterpieces to which she brings storytelling capacity and an intensity that absorbs as the best fiction does -- Kate Kellaway * THE OBSERVER * Barker's prose is poetic but not inflated, visceral but smooth . . . Notes from the Henhouse is a vibrant, jubilant testament to both her life and work -- Lucy Scholes * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Elspeth Barker speaks her mind fearlessly, and her mind is scintillating. Witty, caustic, erudite - as fiercely funny in writing about heartbreak and mortality as she is about drunken dinner parties and delinquent dogs -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett A collection of utterly captivating essays about love, children, pigs, dogs, jealousy, grief, ponds, bereavement, widowhood . . . I would also recommend her only novel, O Caledonia, as an optimal curl-up read. I hope I'm not making her sound cosy - she was much too sharp and original for that -- India Knight * THE TIMES * A masterclass in the art of the personal essay. These pieces - about pigs, and loss, and the delicate balance between art and life - are vital, and funny, and true. Though memoir, they have a powerful ambiguity, like the very best short stories -- Charlie Gilmour, author of FEATHERHOOD What a pleasure it was to read Notes from the Henhouse. An original voice, gothic, poetic and exuberantly funny -- Esther Freud, author of HIDEOUS KINKY This book is heaven. Elspeth Barker writes like no one else -- Olivia Laing, author of CRUDO Elspeth Barker is magnificent, the most underrated British writer of the last century. I loved Notes from the Henhouse so much. Laugh-out-loud funny, sad and beautiful, these essays are a revelation, full of love and joy and life lessons (never go for a man who will intentionally step on a frog and be pragmatic about hens). I will read them again and again -- Camilla Grudova, author of CHILDREN OF PARADISE Brings joy to the bleak midwinter -- Belinda Bamber * COUNTRY AND TOWN HOUSE MAGAZINE * Her writing is glorious and this book of essays is a wonder. Every essay is a masterpiece in miniature . . . Barker is a gift and so is this book. Buy one for yourself and one for those you love. It is that sort of book -- Natasha Poliszczuk * BOOK(ISH) * Elspeth Barker is a writer whose work is so delightful there's almost no point in reviewing it. Why not just fill the page with quotations? . . . Those who have read Barker's only novel know the sweet bitterness and wild glitter of her writing . . . Enchanting -- Louisa Young * PERSPECTIVE * Joyous, startling, funny, lush, dark and complex. The perfect stocking filler, I'd say, for the clever women in your life. -- Melanie Reid * THE TIMES *